Blog

So I have this ebook that I've been working on very sporadically over the past few months. I think I'm calling it 20 for 20. It's my 20 favorite tricks —other people's tricks, that is— from the past 20 years. And I kind of go through them and talk about them and talk about my presentations for them or the changes I've made to the them. Some are well known, some are hidden gems, I guess. These are the effects that I've performed the most in my life -- the impromptu stuff, the everyday tricks.

And I haven't known why I'm writing it, because I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. I'm not going to sell it, because it's not the type of thing you'd sell. It's fairly substantial, but these are my personalizations, not my routines. And it's not the type of thing I would post on this site, because, while I don't explain the routines, I do talk in general about the methods. And this ebook really consists of material that has made-up my day-to-day repertoire. I don't want 100s or even dozens of people having access to it. But I do enjoy the sharing of ideas with a small group of like-minded people.

(I think most people who write a blog are looking for the widest possible audience. But I'm only looking for a wide audience so I can identify a super narrow sub-group of that audience. As I express to people in the GLOMM welcome email, it's about a winnowing process of finding a group of people with whom I share a similar ethos. I spent 25 years on the outskirts of magic identifying with very few people. (And happily so.) This site has allowed me to share my ideas and find those handful of people I'll want to continue interacting with after this site is gone.)

So, anyways, I began to think of ways to identify even smaller subsets of people for when I want to release things, like this ebook, to just a handful of readers. And at the same time I was thinking how much it delighted me to see people destroy their copies of Erdnase, or post pics of themselves in their GLOMM shirts. And then it struck me to combine these things.

I like whenever people invest time and energy into seemingly meaningless fun. That might be the mission statement of this site, actually. And I want to recognize these actions as they pertain to this site so today I'm launching Jerx Points.

Jerx Points are like Marlboro Miles. Except you can't get a canoe with them. Actually... I've changed my mind, you can. 500 Jerx Points get you a canoe.

Jerx Points are not primarily about rewards, although there will be rewards. The five people with the highest number of Jerx Points (or anyone with over 100) will receive the ebook I was talking about at the beginning of this post at the end of 2016.

But that's not what Jerx Points are about. They're about pride. The pride that can only come from ordering a copy of Expert At The Card Table just so you can destroy it. Or the pride that comes from taking part in any of the activities/objectives that I might think up. Eventually there will be a permanent link in the navigation bar that will contain all the Jerx point generating things you can do, and I will be adding to the list from time-to-time.

- Start a rumor on twitter that helps cement Andi Gladwin's legacy as a magic's dark, brooding, bad boy. Things like how he fingered your wife in an elevator (and made you watch) or knocked your teeth out for looking at him wrong. #BADwin - 3 points.

- A GLOMM tattoo. With video proof. You're an idiot - 100 points

There will be more of these to come, but that should get you going.

I am the final judge on whether you get the points or not. You can only get points one-time per objective. Unless you do something really cool the second time.

Some of you already have a number of Jerx Points. Don't go bragging about it, hot shot. In fact:

- Any tweet that brags about the number of Jerx Points you have - minus 2 Jerx Points.

- Any tweet that humbly mentions the number of Jerx Points you have - 2 Jerx Points.

You are also free to come up with your own ideas and submit them for Jerx Points. This will be like @Midnight or Whose Line Is It Anyway, where I'll arbitrarily award points for your effort. I'm not really looking for things that promote this site directly. In general anything that legitimizes the GLOMM is funny to me and would get you some Jerx Points. Some guy offered to write a death metal song about how Erdnase sucks -- that would be a Jerx Point worthy effort. Any artistic endeavor done with genuine talent and an investment of time that reflects some dumb thing I talk about here is potentially a Jerx Point worthy event.

You'll have to notify me on twitter or email to make sure I'm aware of your Jerx Point efforts, but you're responsible for keeping your own tally too. Include proper hashtags where applicable: #erdnaseblows - #GLOMM - #BADwin.

To reiterate, yes, there will be rewards and exclusive content for those at the top of the Jerx Points Leaderboard. But this is not about that. It's about being able to take pride in something for once in your rotten life. It's about creating a legacy to leave your grandkids. ("They say Poppy had the most Jerx Points in all of Missouri!" -- "It's true son. He was a great man... maybe the greatest.")

To spare myself some emails, I'm completely serious about all of this. Even the canoe.